


Stained Souls

by MimiIvory



Series: Tales Unfolding [3]
Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Crosstale | XTale (Undertale), Alternate Universe - Underswap (Undertale), Crosstale Sans (Undertale), Error Sans - Freeform, Errortale Sans Being a Jerk (Undertale), Evil W. D. Gaster, Gen, Good Chara (Undertale), Male Chara (Undertale), Reader Is Not Frisk (Undertale), Reader is Chara (Undertale), Sans Being a Murderer (Undertale), Sans Being an Idiot (Undertale), Sans is Having a Bad Time (Undertale), Underswap Chara (Undertale), Underswap Papyrus (Undertale), Underswap Sans (Undertale), _____tale Sans/Ink
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-08
Updated: 2021-03-12
Packaged: 2021-03-14 18:22:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 1,651
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29920977
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MimiIvory/pseuds/MimiIvory
Summary: You aren't here to flip around. But Cross doesn't trust you yet. Fine. You'll, bide your time until he relises Ink is a trator, and then you can start gathering determination. You think that they'll help you. Frisk certainly would have
Relationships: Chara & Asriel Dreemurr, Chara & Chara (Undertale), Chara & Frisk (Undertale), Chara & Sans (Undertale), Papyrus & Sans (Undertale), Sans & Sans (Undertale)
Series: Tales Unfolding [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2182386
Comments: 2
Kudos: 8





	1. First Meetings

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [conversations had with people that don't exist](https://archiveofourown.org/works/29131425) by [snasational](https://archiveofourown.org/users/snasational/pseuds/snasational). 



It is that skeleton again.

Not this skeleton. You don’t like Cross, because he killed everyone you know and loved. And Gaster. Especially Frisk. When you were on the cusp of finally killing Gaster and getting your life and soul back.

You hate Cross a lot, but he is your only option for moving forward. And he wants your world back, which is what you want. So there is no use in insulting him. Move on.

You take it slow. Say something, let it simmer. He is not interested in being friends. Thinks you’re evil.

Which is interesting, given that he is the one who killed everyone. Heck, even Gaster took Frisk’s body instead of doing the dirty work himself.

Well, you might have messed with him a little. But it’s nothing worse than what you went through, and you learned to wait. Maybe he will learn patience when Ink stabs him in the back.

But that skeleton. Ink. He is hiding something.

Even after the weeks together, he has not told Cross about what he did to Gaster, that he was the one who started the mess in the first place.

But Cross does not know much about you, or the timelines. He isn’t interested in working with you.

You think it’s a good thing that he isn’t. You gather knowledge, and determination, and poke at the void.

You keep an eye on Ink, though. You’re good at that.

You were never very good at action.


	2. Escape

It hurts, pulling yourself back together.

But you dealt with Gaster tearing and restiching the very fabric of your being. You can keep up long enough to get to Chara.

Chara, you know, will help you. And you just need a sliver of a soul to get started.

Maybe collect more pieces from there.

Then you can overwrite the world to look like it used to. Give the kids back their souls.

Cross fights you, but you are the only thing keeping him together, so he gives up.

He thinks you're so evil. Eh. Move on.

You see Ink injured. You smile.

He should have come back for you. He should have done something, other than leave Gaster to torture us.

But he didn’t. And this is the price he pays.


	3. Scraps

You show up on the edge of town.

Cross has stopped fighting you with control so hard-nope. There he is.

(You) “Stop that, idiot. I’m trying to keep us alive.”

He seems doubtful.

(Sans) “What are you going to do?”

Oof. Cut it.

(You) “Remember that thing that Frisk showed you? That perfect timeline?”

He better shrink back.

(You) “This one is like that, but the human is a Chara. To get up here, they have to be kind enough to die for it, over and over, so I figured they could probably spare a bit of their soul for someone who’s about to die.”

Sans shuts up. You think that is approval.

You manage to get to Chara. Other Chara.

(You) “Hello.”

Chara looks at you.

(You) “Can I have some of your soul, please?”

Chara backs up. You sink your head in your hands.

(You) “Just check me, please.”

They do, and gasp.

(Chara) “How much?”

You smile. Lopsided.

(You) “How much can you spare?”

There is a break.

(You) “A point is all I need.”

They extend their hand.

You scrape off another point, but you don’t know how to return it, and they don’t really seem to want to do it again.

(You) “See you round.”

And you walk off.

Just a couple of blocks. Enough to regroup.

(You) “Alright. New plan. Get enough determination to overwrite.”

You can feel it budding, somewhere in your soul.

(Cross) “Overwrite?”

Oh come on.

(You) “How we got everyone’s memories back. What we did to you. The ability to change anything, so long as you can piece it together.

You preferred reset. Less messy. Got you out of a few scrapes. But you don’t have a choice if you want your world back.

(Cross) “So we can get our world back?”

(You) “First our soul. Then our world.”

And then you can return all the determination to its rightful owners, and get your world back, and deal with Gaster properly.

And that is when Ink crashes on to the scene, accompanied by Smokes.


	4. Misunderstandings

You slash out at Ink.

(Cross) “Why are you doing that? He’s my friend.”

No.

(You) “He’s really not, actually. Just a liar and a traitor.”

You slash out again.

(You) “For example. I doubt that he told Papyrus here what happened. Did he?”

Cross is startled.

(Smokes) “just that there was a murderous human about, probably trying to steal a soul. sound about right?”

No. No it does not.

(You) “Only borrowed Chara’s determination. Ask them, if you don’t believe me.”

This is followed by a check, and another slash.

(Smokes) “alright. both of you are in timeout until we get chara over here.”

Ink got a couple of hits in on you, too. So you both get a blue bone through your chest.

(Ink) “Hey, buddy. What’s the big deal?”

So friendly.

(You) “Your lies?”

He is a liar.

The Sans comes over, with Chara in tow.

(Sans) “BROTHER? WHY ARE BOTH OF THESE STRANGE MONSTERS IMPALED ON BONES?”

You wish you had the naivety that he does, Or Sans. Or Papyrus, or Muffet. But you can’t win with them innocent.

(You) “No worries. We were fighting, and now we’re in time out.”

Not even any pain.

(Sans) “THAT DOES NOT SEEM PROPORTIONAL. BUT WHO ARE YOU? I DO NOT BELIEVE I HAVE MET YOU BEFORE, AND THE MAGNIFICENT SANS WOULD NEVER MISS ANOTHER SKELETON IN THE UNDERGROUND.”

Ink perks up.

(Ink) “Oh, we’re just your average multiverse-traveling hero-villain duo. Nothing special.”

He is good at banter. You’ll give him that.

(You) “The reason we were impaled? Chara? Mind confirming?”

Chara eeps.

(Chara) “Yeah. They were dying, so I helped them.”

Hope that clears it up.

(You) “Alrighty then.”

You pull yourself halfway off of the bone, before it disappears.

(You) “Huh. Forgot they could do that.”

Everyone looks rather concerned.

(You) “Can I get something to eat while you sort all this out? Don’t know if anyone could tell, but I’m low on HP.”

Smokes snickers.

(Sans) “HOW ABOUT YOU TWO GET SOME FOOD, WHILE WE SORT THIS OUT WITH THIS SKELETON.”

Chara grabs your hand.

(Chara) “What’s your name?”

You could go by Chara, but…

(You) “Call me X.”

You get two bags of candy, and Chara shows you the complements written on the ribbons, and you teach them how to tie a good knot.

You think that this is fair.

You have a lot of candy left, but it is time to go.


	5. Borrower

You dart between worlds.

You don’t stay anywhere when the kid is in danger. They need all the determination they can get.

You learn how to scrape off one point, and stick to it. No matter how much easier it would make it, you are at their mercy, and you are taking fragments of their soul. You can’t go overboard.

You want to. You want to get it all over and done with. But you won’t.

You can’t be picky about who’s determination you drain. You want to stop taking it from Frisk’s. It feels wrong, having a piece of your brother who isn’t inside of you, but you have to move forward.

Their determination is sickly-sweet, usually, but it would have to be, to keep them going, and everyone alive.

You tell Cross about how Ink took you to see all of these worlds, and you got to run around in them, and then Gaster made a world like most of them, and he came back once or twice, and he never helped or asked any questions or tried to save us, and he let Frisk die, and he only cares about creation, and not people's lives.

You get caught a couple of times, but you never seem to do anything but ask for a bit of determination, so you get a headstart.

You have the overwrite button functioning, now it’s time to work with it.

You haven’t gotten many chances to play around, but with Gaster dead, or gone, or whatever. Not here, he can’t mess with you. You can do whatever you want with the reset button.

And you do. You do a lot of things with the button.

It alters the world around you in small ways. Maybe they would be bigger if you had more determination, but you will work with what you have.

Change the ground to stumbling blocks, switch up the direction of attacks, confuse them.

You practice on Ink, and in the more fighty places. Sometimes it’s polite, sometimes it’s a battle to the death. You have a lot of knives, either way.

Ink chases after you, but you are getting better at fighting him.

You manage to find Error. You want your soul back.

You defeat him for long enough to get your soul back. That is, he stops fighting you to fight Ink instead. You don’t know why, but you would be glad to leave them to fight each other forever.

You return the bits of determination. Most of them look vaguely surprised. You can’t blame them. You would have chalked the last… month up as a hallucination the first timeline through.

But right now, the only luxury you have is putting your world back together. And even though it is tedious, it is worth it to have Sans sulking in a corner, and Frisk here, and Asriel crying on your shoulder as you put the world together.

Maybe it is selfishness to leave them all with guilt on their shoulders. But you could not survive without your family to help you. And now you get to make yourself a home.


End file.
